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“Here’s your boarding ticket Sir, and advance happy birthday”, words I got from the airline ground attendant at the NAIA passengers’ check-in desk during one of my trips coming back here in the Kingdom. It’s nice to hear those words, though, I got mixed emotions then, thankful and happy for another year of life that I could have celebrated back home with my family, but at the same time faced with sadness for I have to leave home again– for a couple of times. But as I celebrate my birthday today far away from home again for the seventh times, it’s different now, it’s thrilled with much excitement. I finally am going home (totoo na ‘to).

There are tons of reasons why at a certain point, we have to leave what we consider our home – our family, our loved ones. We go places to spend some time for leisure, to find for a new opportunity, to travel the world, to stay away from stress and more. May it be for just a couple of days, for weeks, months or years, I guess most of us are certain when are we coming back home. I’ve been in the Kingdom for about seven years and I am now sure that my stay here is pretty enough. For whatever reason in mind, what I wanted now is to go back home.

Few more days from now, it’s Christmas again – another tough moment for me and for those spending the holidays far away from home. This year, I’ll be on-duty, a regular 12-hour shift the same thing I had back in 2009. It’s quite a challenge to beat this supposed to be “family day” especially in a world where Christmas doesn’t exist at all. But this should not stop us from celebrating the season because for me, we can find the true meaning of Christmas, wherever.

Last year, it’s so fortunate that I had my annual vacation in time for the holidays. I spent the season of course with my family, relatives and close friends. Spending the season with people close to your heart is truly unmatched. I had the traditional simbang gabi, putu-bungbong along the street, and even the “libreng tsaa” still exists. I also had to beat the Christmas rush, traffic, endless shopping for gifts for my “inaanak” and dine out with friends while listening to those non-stop Christmas medley. I would be missing the children’s carolling and of course the “noche buena” with the whole family – things and moments that I enjoy every season but of course not this year.

The excitement of being in a foreign place isn’t so great especially during the holidays. But there are countless ways to make the season as happier and meaningful where you can still have at least the same spirit even you’re miles away. Each individual may have unique ways of spending the holidays the same way I have which I’ve been doing for the past years of being away on Christmas. This time, I have listed down some stuff that could help me spend the holidays far from home. more…

Yes it is. Am sure you would agree that everyone wants happiness but not everyone knows how to gain the real happiness we want. For me, I always make things simple to be happy. Instead of waiting for somebody to boost the level of happiness in me, I would rather reach out and make someone else feel great. This I consider as the easiest and fastest way to be happy.

There are lots of ways that can make or influence others to feel great each day. Some would need much effort but we can always make our life easy, I mean it won’t really take much of our time and effort to boost someone else’s happiness level. A simple act of kindness whether to your family, friend, colleagues, or even to strangers may seem immaterial to you, but the impact to their lives could be enormous. Holding the elevator button to let other people get in, giving our seat to a pregnant woman standing, or picking up something that was dropped – all brings smile to others. And seeing these smiles lifts our spirit. Simple yet significant act of kindness that is really contagious. more…

I guess it’s a common thing to us. If we like someone or otherwise, it takes a lot of effort to say “I like you,” or “I don’t like you.” We always think of pleasing words to say that most often than not, make simple situation and things complicated.

But, it should not be that complicated, we can always make it simple. Why complicate life?

And I think the easiest way to make life simple is by being honest. We can simply say, “know what, you have the most fascinating face I’ve seen this whole night, and I like you!”, or “I’m sorry but we have nothing in common, and I don’t like hanging around with you.” By being honest and tactful make things simple. It’s not that people will like us more if we don’t lie, but that honesty really pays off.

My boss asked me to install an antivirus to his laptop. But in the process, the system failed and some important files were corrupted which unfortunately were unrecoverable. I could create great lengths of excuses, but do you think it will make my life simple? Isn’t it easier to tell the truth and face the consequences for being careless? It’s easier to just say, “Boss, this may not sound funny, but I dumped some of your files because I’ve been a total idiot.” (Haha, I’m pretty sure this won’t happen to me because I’m so really careful handling those kind of things.)